The Puffer Forum

hey everyone.
in my last post i had mentioned that i thought "Umlaut" my 3 year old fahaka puffer was ill. well, i dont know what was wrong but he did not make it through the night last night. i found him belly up in his cave this morning. i have tested all my water parameters and everything is the same as it always was. i suspect he contracted "something" from a feeder shrimp from the lfs. the only problem with that theory is that it has been about two weeks since i gave him his feeder treats so i dont know. all i do know is that i tried hard to keep him alive, and im mad right now because today i was going to buy some formalin and preform a medicated treatment. oh well, i guess too little too late.
anyway thanks everyone for all of their help on this forum. i wish i had discovered this place years ago.
nick h

Perhaps it also had something to do with inadequate space. How long had he been in the 55?
I'm so sorry for your loss, it sucks

Dear me... lots of puffs seem to be dying this week. Bad luck, it's a shame.

My condolences.

thanks for your support everyone. he was in the 55 for about a year. before that he was in a 40gal. for about 2 years. it sucks because i was gonna get him a new tank in january. do you think that might have hurt his health, he was active and seemed happy. anyway, thanks again for your support, i am very broken up about it all.

Stunting can result in enlarged organs in a smaller body.

Sorry about that. Poor Umlaut.
Pami.

i had no idea about the stunting issue, thank you pufferpunk. i have definitely learned much about puffers in the last few months from being on this board, and am very sad to learn the hard lessons of puffer keeping.
i came home to an empty tank tonight, and there are some ghost shrimp just cruising around in there now. it was such an infuriating sight to see his little tasty treats just swimming about not scared anymore, thinking they own his tank or something.

Aww, dude, don't torture yourself. We've all learnt the hard way..everyone here has lost a puff somehow through not knowing any better...it happens, mate, but it won't happen next time, yeah?
Pami.

Sorry about your loss. It sucks when you dont know the reason why it happened.

yeah this has definitely been the learning experience.knowledge is power and i wont let it happen anymore. i do have one question though, should i completely re-cycle my tank before putting new fish in?. of course do a large water change a few times to get the toxins out, but how should i go about this. i have this empty tank just sitting there.

I have the same issue. I did 2 water changes before mine died. I have been checking it every day and everything looks great so im going to get a F8 tomorrow and watch it carefully. Hopefully everything will work out. Im not an expert but im trusting the people in the forum to guide me. Good Luck

hey thanks for the info puffniko. i will definitely do two, perhaps even three or four h20 changes. i cant hurt right. the problem is that i don't have anything in there right now. basically it is a dead tank-nothing producing ammonia, etc. I'm kinda afraid to just plop new fish in there because the tank may have uncycled. i will check the levels and if everything is still fine, in a week i will get more fish.
ps. good luck with the f8. I'm thinking of sa puffers, but not looking forward to snail breeding. oh well you take the good and bad with your pets i guess.
nick h

Nick H, by your readings being 'fine' what do you mean? With nothing producing food (Ammonia) for the bacteria, they will die within 24 hours. You're going to need to re-cycle your tank before starting again.

That sounds really sad, I'm so sorry. Weird how people get so attached to their puffers. Try not to think about it too much.